Please go over and read the commentary on Japan’s decision to resume whaling over here at Wired, especially pay attention to the enlightened comments at the end the ones by “Rawhead” and “DarkMirage” are exceptional. Then reflect back on that logic class you had take your second year in undergrad and try to point out as many fallacies as you can! Just off the top of my head I noticed straw man, ad hominem, appeal to ridicule, and personal attack.
To the article, killing animals is barbaric, whether it’s a whale, cow, pig or chicken. The Japanese should at least be honest enough to admit to what they’re actually doing with the whales. If you disagree with their policies you absolutely should boycott Japanese products and let companies know why. If enough people did, the Japanese government would feel the pressure real quick, the country depends on its exports. There is no cultural excuse for anything and anytime you hear someone appeal to their culture to defend some ethically dubious practice they are exercising another logical fallacy: appeal to common practice. Just because humans everywhere butchers all sorts of domesticated animals, doesn’t justify Japan slaughtering whales, but no one wants to be ethical first. Mostly because no one in politics, the general populous understands game theory. Oh, well I guess I could mention that there’s no good reason to kill those free roaming whales when we have those billions of plants and animals in food factories, but I wonder if they’d follow the logic!
